Editorial

Seeing holiness in the life and ministry of Fulton J. Sheen

Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right. (Blessed Fulton J. Sheen)

Forty-seven years ago, on Oct. 3, 1979, during his first papal visit to the United States, Pope St. John Paul II warmly embraced the aging and infirm Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus,” the pope exclaimed. “You have been a loyal son of the Church.” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen returned to his Lord two months later on Dec. 9, 1979.

Just eight days ago, on Sept. 24, Pope Leo XIV’s representative, Cardinal Luis Tagle, beatified Archbishop Sheen in a liturgy celebrated at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis to accommodate the more than 50,000 pilgrims who gathered for this momentous occasion.

Beatification is the Church’s formal declaration that a deceased Christian may be called “Blessed.” It is an important step toward sainthood (canonization is the next and final step), and it acknowledges that a person lived with notable holiness and is now with God. Beatification does not make a person holy; rather, it is the Church’s authoritative recognition of a holiness that is already present through God’s grace.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was declared “venerable” in 2012, but his beatification, which was originally planned for 2019, was delayed in order to allow for further reviews of his administrative record as the bishop of Rochester, N.Y. Those reviews concluded without issue, clearing the path for his beatification.

The miracle, which was required before his beatification could be celebrated, was approved by Pope Francis in 2019. This miracle involved the unexpected recovery of a stillborn infant who in 2010 survived without a pulse for more than an hour after his parents prayed for Archbishop Sheen’s intercession.

Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., in 1919, Fulton Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and served as a parish priest before he was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966, when he was appointed Bishop of Rochester, N.Y. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached, and he was named archbishop of the titular see of Newport (a diocese in Wales).

For 20 years, Archbishop Sheen hosted the nighttime radio program “The Catholic Hour” on NBC (1930–1950) before he moved to television and presented “Life Is Worth Living” (1952–1957) and the syndicated “The Fulton Sheen Program” (1961–1968).

In 1952, he won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and in the same year he was featured on the April 14 cover of Time magazine. When then-Bishop Sheen received his Emmy award, he humorously remarked, “I would like to thank my scriptwriters: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.” Since 2009, his television shows have been re-broadcast on EWTN and other cable TV networks.

According to the late Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Father Andrew Apostoli, who served as vice-postulator for the cause of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen’s canonization from 2001 until his death in 2017, “Archbishop Sheen was a man with a reputation for great holiness. … Saints are men and women who imitated Jesus Christ and lived his Gospel message to a heroic degree. Saints get to know the Gospel from the inside, so to speak, rather than merely as outside observers. There is no doubt that many people experience a powerful inspiration as they read and meditate on the great insights Archbishop Sheen had into who the person of Jesus Christ is and how he affects our lives.”

Archbishop Sheen was a philosopher, a humorist, a media personality and a diocesan bishop, but his beatification and his future claim to sainthood do not result from any of these qualities or accomplishments.

The Church invites us to call Fulton J. Sheen “blessed” because he was a holy man of prayer whose public life and ministry offered millions of people here in the United States and throughout the whole world a chance to see Jesus Christ reflected in his words and actions.

Let’s pray that one day soon this holy man of God will be formally recognized as a saint. And let’s seek his intercession for all of us as we strive to carry out in our own ways the evangelizing mission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

—Daniel Conway